Panel AcousticsField notes

Teen dens and games rooms

1 min readFig. 01 — QuickMount Halo tiles in Stream and Lake on a wall behind a table and chairs

A room where teenagers hang out has one job: let them be loud without the whole house paying for it.

Noise in both directions

Two things are happening. Sound is bouncing around inside the room, and sound is getting out into the rest of the house. Panels work on the first one directly. They're rated NRC 0.85, so they absorb about 85% of the sound that hits them. Less sound rattling around inside means less of it building up and spilling out through the door. They won't soundproof a room, and we won't tell you otherwise, but a treated room is noticeably calmer on both sides of the wall.

It also fixes the shouting

Games rooms are usually hard boxes. Tiled or timber floors, blank plasterboard, maybe a glass slider. Everyone ends up yelling over the room itself. Take the echo out and the same conversation happens at half the volume. Headsets pick up less background too.

Tough enough

PET felt is hard wearing and doesn't fray when it's cut. It doesn't dent like plasterboard and it handles a knock. If something gets marked, vacuum it with a brush head or spot-clean it. Backed by a 10 year warranty.

It has to look good

Fair enough. There are 14 colours in the Habitat range and two thicknesses, 12mm and 24mm, so you can build a pattern rather than a flat slab. Coal, Char and Flint look sharp behind a screen. Ember, Moss, Lake or Fern give the room some colour. Frameless pinboards are worth a look too, since they absorb sound and still take posters and pins.